Direct manipulation interpolation and ghost wedging for distributed node-based interactive workflows

ABSTRACT

A distributed computation system is leveraged to evaluate many possible results of a rig near the current pose to obtain predicted poses. A user locally runs an animation application instance to manipulate an animated object including a rig and shape. Depending on a user&#39;s selection or modification of a rig control of the rig, changes to the rig control are predicted. Based on the predicted changes to the rig control, the distributed computation system evaluates the rig to obtain different predicted poses. The predicted poses are made available to an interpolator that blends the results to obtain an interpolated shape. In implementations, the distributed computation system may be used to evaluate predicted poses for animation ghosting.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to techniques for animatingrigs in computer animation, and more particularly, to systems andmethods for dynamically predicting poses of a rig during directmanipulation of the rig.

BACKGROUND

Skeletal animation is a computer animation technique that represents anobject in two primary parts: 1) a mesh that is a surface representationof the object, and 2) a set of interconnected joints (i.e., a rig) usedto animate the mesh. Generally, a joint may refer to a bone and thepivot about which it rotates, or a joint may just refer to a pivot.Joints may be related in a hierarchy by joint transformations. Skeletalanimation may be applied to transform any object that implements thismesh and rig structure. For example, it may be applied to a whole or apart (e.g., arm, leg, hand, foot, torso) of an animated character,creature, or similar object. Alternatively, it may be applied toanimations of other objects, such as clothing, a door, a fork, etc.

During animation, a rig may be represented as a set of nodes of a nodegraph (e.g., a directed acyclic graph), each node having correspondinginput and output attributes. The attributes of a node describe its data,with each node type having a different set of attributes. For example,the nodes associated with an animating sphere may comprise attributessuch as radius, angular momentum, position, color, and transparency.During animation of a rig, all or a subset of the rig's nodes areevaluated as data flows. The processed node graph data is visuallyrendered as a static image or animated scene on a display via aviewport.

Animation rigs used in film productions have become very complex. Inmany cases, these rigs comprise tens of thousands of nodes, each nodebeing associated with many input attributes and/or computationallyexpensive operations. Such rigs can generate very appealing shapedeformation on computer-generated imagery (CGI) characters. However, rigperformance (i.e., speed) suffers when the complexity of the rigincreases.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

A distributed computation system is leveraged to evaluate many possibleresults of a rig near the current pose to obtain predicted poses. Thepredicted poses are made available to an interpolator that blends theresults to obtain an interpolated shape. As pose interpolation issignificantly less computationally expensive than rig evaluation,embodiments of the systems and methods disclosed herein may achievesignificant improvements in throughput and efficiency during animationprocesses.

In a first embodiment of the disclosed technology, a computing devicerunning a node graph application instance may interpolate predictedposes. The computing device may initiate a node graph applicationinstance, the node graph application instance displaying an objectcomprising a rig and a shape. As an animator manipulates the object, theanimator may select or modify a control of the rig. In response to acontrol of the rig being selected or modified, a request may beinitiated at the computing device for a prediction module to spawn a setof predictions for poses of the object, where the prediction modulecomputes predicted poses for the object based on the initial pose andthe selected or modified control of the rig. Two or more of thepredicted poses are interpolated to obtain an interpolated shape. Theinterpolated shape may be drawn in a viewport of the node graphapplication.

In implementations, the interpolated shape is a result that istemporarily displayed in the viewport until a rig corresponding to acurrent pose of the object is evaluated. In one implementation, thecomputing device locally predict changes to the rig controls (e.g.,predict poses) and requests that a distributed computation systemevaluate the rigs of the predicted poses. In an implementation of thefirst embodiment, the method further includes: interpolating a secondset of poses from the predicted poses to obtain a second interpolatedshape; and drawing the second interpolated shape in a viewport of thenode graph application as a ghost shape of the first interpolated shape.

In a second embodiment of the disclosed technology, a server system mayevaluate predicted poses. The server system may initiate a node graphapplication instance at a server that includes a copy of an objectmanipulated on a node graph application instance of a host device; andreceive a request from the host device to evaluate predicted poses forthe object, where the request includes rig control values for each ofthe predicted poses. In response to receiving the request, the serversystem may evaluate the rig control values for each of the predictedposes to obtain a shape for each of the predicted poses; and store in acache the shape for each of the predicted poses, where the host devicemay access the cache to retrieve the shapes.

Other features and aspects of the disclosed method will become apparentfrom the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the featuresin accordance with embodiments of the disclosure. The summary is notintended to limit the scope of the claimed disclosure, which is definedsolely by the claims attached hereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure, in accordance with one or more variousembodiments, is described in detail with reference to the followingfigures. The figures are provided for purposes of illustration only andmerely depict typical or example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates conventional processes for evaluating rigs for thepurpose of i) interactive manipulation and ii) video playback/scrubbing

FIG. 2 illustrates one example of a distributed computing system fordistributed node-based interactive workflows.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an animation workflow fori) interactive manipulation with a rig and ii) playback/scrubbing of ananimated video in accordance with embodiments.

FIG. 4 is an operational flow diagram illustrating an example methodthat may be implemented by a computing device running an animationapplication instance to interpolate shapes during direct manipulation ofa rig.

FIG. 5A illustrates a viewport displaying a rigged shape at differentsteps of the method of FIG. 4.

FIG. 5B illustrates a viewport displaying a rigged character atdifferent steps of the method of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an operational flow diagram illustrating an example methodthat may be performed by a local or remote server of a distributedcomputation system to predict poses in accordance with embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an animation ghostingworkflow for i) interactive manipulation with a rig and ii) playbackscrubbing of an animated video in accordance with embodiments.

FIG. 8A illustrates a viewport displaying a rigged shape at differentstages of the animation ghosting workflow for interaction manipulationof FIG. 7.

FIG. 8B illustrates a viewport displaying a rigged character atdifferent stages of the animation ghosting workflow for interactionmanipulation of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example computing module that may be used toimplement various features of the methods disclosed herein.

The figures are not exhaustive and do not limit the disclosure to theprecise form disclosed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As used herein, a “rig control” generally refers to a control forcontrolling how a node graph evaluates and deforms an animated object. Arig control may be used to define a shape, position, color, texture, orother property of an animated object or a part of an animated object.For example, for an animated character, a rig control may specify aposition of a hand, a shoulder rotation, an amount an eye closes, etc.During animation, an animator may manipulate a rig control to interactwith an animated object.

A rig control is associated with one or more rig control values. Forinstance, one rig control can serve as the location, scale, andorientation of a character's hand. A rig control value may assume a widevariety of variable or value types, such as, for example, a floatingpoint variable, an integer variable, a boolean variable, an enumeratedvariable type, a percentage, a clamped range, etc.

As used herein, a “pose” generally refers to a particular combination orconfiguration of rig control values corresponding to a rig of ananimated object. For example, for an animated character comprising 3000rig control values, a pose may comprise 3000 values that define anoutput shape of the character.

As used herein, a “shape” of an animated object refers to a form andcharacteristic appearance of an animated object. A shape may berepresented as a mesh, a nurb, a curve, etc.

As noted above, animation rigs used in film productions have become verycomplex. This is especially notable when animators manipulate the rigcontrols to achieve a pose and they have to endure the arduous processof adjusting great numbers of pose controls. This directly affects thequality of films because animators have only limited time to iterate andrefine the posing of controls. FIG. 1, which shows conventionalprocesses for evaluating rigs for the purpose of i) interactivemanipulation and ii) video playback/scrubbing, illustrates thesedrawbacks.

During conventional interactive manipulation of a rig, the animator'scomputer locally evaluates a rig each time the animator moves a rigcontrol or sets a rig control to a new value (e.g., by directly updatinginput attributes of nodes in a node graph or by manipulating objects ina viewport). The basic feedback loop proceeds as follows: movecontrol→gather pose (i.e., gather current rig control values)→evaluaterig→draw shape. The delay in interaction manipulation is limited to thelocal computer's ability to process the operations of gathering thepose, evaluating the rig, and drawing the shape. This may lead to choppyinteraction with the animated rig.

Similarly, each time a new animation frame is generated during playbackor scrubbing of an animation video, the animation process is delayed bythe local computer's delay in gathering the pose, evaluating the rig,and drawing the shape. As illustrated by FIG. 1, the majority of thecomputation time is spent evaluating the rig. If the complexity of therig is too great (e.g., too many nodes or only a few nodes performinghighly complex operations, such as an advanced skinning techniques), theanimator's computer may not be able to display the animation video at anacceptable frame rate (e.g., 24 frames per second (FPS)).

Embodiments of the technology disclosed herein address theaforementioned issues by using a distributed computation system toevaluate many possible results of a rig near the current pose to obtainpredicted poses. A user locally runs an animation application instanceto manipulate an animated object including a rig and shape. Depending ona user's selection or modification of a rig control of the rig, thedistributed system predicts changes to the rig control, and based on thepredicted changes to the rig control, evaluates the rig to obtaindifferent predicted poses. The predicted poses are made available to aninterpolator that blends the results to obtain an interpolated shape.

In implementations, the poses selected for interpolation may be based ona distance or “similarity” between the predicted poses and a currentpose. As pose interpolation is significantly less computationallyexpensive than rig evaluation, embodiments of the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may achieve significant improvements in throughput andefficiency during animation processes.

In further embodiments of the technology disclosed herein, a distributedcomputation system may be used to evaluate predicted poses for animationghosting. Animation ghosting draws shapes from adjacent frames ornearest keyframes of an animated object, in a different shade oropacity, next to the shape of the current frame. This assists ananimator with visualizing the animation of an object over time (e.g.,visualizing motion).

Embodiments disclosed herein leverage a distributed computation systemto predict poses for the current shape and a ghost shape (e.g., a shapecorresponding to a previous or subsequent frame). After prediction, theanimator's device may interpolate a first set of predicted poses toobtain an interpolated shape for the current frame, interpolate a secondset of predicted poses to obtain a ghost shape for an adjacent frame,and subsequently draw the interpolated current shape and theinterpolated ghost shape.

FIG. 2 illustrates one example of a distributed computing system fordistributed node-based interactive workflows. The communications systemincludes a plurality of computing devices 202-205, each communicatingwith other computing devices 202-205 and servers 201 throughcommunications network 200. Computing devices 202-205 may comprise, butare not limited to, workstation, desktop, laptop, notebook, and tabletcomputers; hand-held devices such as tablets, smartphones, cellphones,and palmtops; and wearable devices such as head-mounted displays. Incommunications network 200, the processing of some or all of the rigs(e.g., node based graphical data) generated by users operating computingdevices 202-205 is distributed over one or more servers 201. In someembodiments, these servers may be implemented as a grid computer.

As used herein, communications network 200 may refer to any network thatallows for a distributed computing system. Communications network 200may include a cloud computing network, an ad hoc network, an intranet,an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a local area network(LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a portion ofthe Internet, a cellular telephone network, a satellite network, or anycombination thereof. Communications network 200 may use a number ofcommunication mediums. The communication medium may be a wired system,such as a coaxial cable system, a fiber optic cable system, an Ethernetcable system, or other similar communication medium. Alternatively, thecommunication medium may be a wireless network system, such as awireless personal area network, a wireless local area network, acellular network, or other similar communication medium.

In various embodiments, further described below, the results ofevaluated rigs may be cached in a shared cache 220. For example, given aset of rig controls and values defining a pose, that pose may beassociated with a shape determined by evaluating the rig (i.e., byevaluating a node graph). Shared cache 220, in embodiments, may bedistributed across multiple hosts (e.g., servers 201 and/or devices202-205) with the poses of past and future frames. Each host maypre-populate cache 220 with a number of poses. In this manner, relyingon cached pose data, a host may process a pose request for a rig orinterpolate a set of poses similar to the requested pose during ananimation session.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an animation workflow fori) interactive manipulation with a rig and ii) playback/scrubbing of ananimated video in accordance with embodiments. In this exemplaryworkflow, prediction modules 350 may comprise a distributed computingsystem (e.g., the system of FIG. 2) of workers W, each worker evaluatinga whole or subset of a rig on a different machine or process. Predictionmodules 350 may also comprise a local or remote prediction managementmodule that predicts a set of poses for evaluation by the distributedcomputing system. After prediction of a pose and evaluation of thepredicted pose's rig to obtain a shape, data of a given pose andassociated shape may be stored in cache 300, which, as described above,may be distributed across multiple hosts or otherwise made available tomultiple hosts.

During interactive manipulation, illustrated by the top workflow of FIG.3, an artist may obtain real time interactive feedback as the artistanimates objects (e.g., characters) by modifying rig controls (e.g., bymanipulating objects in the viewport or by manually inputting rigvalues). As the artist selects a control to change a value of a rig,prediction modules 350 precompute a set of possible outcomes of the rig(i.e., predicted poses) and stores the results in cache 300.

Once the current pose is computed, the host device may interpolate thepredicted poses of a set of N poses most similar to the current pose anddraw an interpolated shape (e.g., a mesh). In some cases, the currentpose may match one of the predicted poses, interpolation may be skipped,and the shape may be drawn directly from the matching pose stored incache 300. As illustrated by FIG. 3, the delay in interpolating a poseis significantly less than the delayed in evaluating a rig (e.g., on theorder of ten times). Accordingly, significant improvements in throughputand efficiency may be achieved during interaction manipulation.

By way of example, consider the case where an artist is moving an arm ofan animated character upward in one dimension. Prediction modules 350may evaluate the rig for the arm at different heights (e.g., 3, 10, 100or more) to obtain a set of predicted poses that are stored in cache300. Thereafter, once the current pose is gathered in the animationapplication, the predicted poses of the arm may be interpolated toobtain an interpolated shape for the current pose, and the interpolatedshape may be drawn in the animation application.

During playback and scrubbing of an animated video, illustrated by thebottom workflow of FIG. 3, prediction modules 350 and cache 300 maysimilarly be leveraged to cache poses for a given video frame or keyframe. In this example implementation, poses are easy to predict fromkey frames when playing through the video frame range a first time, andrepeated (i.e., there is a 100% hit rate in cache 300) when playingthrough the video frame range. In embodiments, a configurable cachestrategy may be applied during a first playback of an animation video.The configurable cache strategy may permit an animator to specifywhether to interpolate shapes for every frame (e.g., to speed up aplayback framerate and allow playback at speeds greater than the regularspeed), evaluate the rig for every frame (e.g., to show an exactrepresentation of the video), or some dynamic combination thereof.

FIG. 4 is an operational flow diagram illustrating an example method 400that may be implemented by a computing device running an animationapplication instance to interpolate shapes during direct manipulation ofa rig. FIG. 4 will be described in conjunction with FIG. 5A, whichillustrates a viewport displaying a rigged shape at different steps ofmethod 400.

In embodiments, prior to beginning method 400, a node graph applicationinstance (i.e., an animation application) may be initiated at acomputing device. A viewport of the application instance may display arigged shape (e.g., a rigged mesh selected by the user). For example, asshown in FIG. 5A the initial configuration of the rigged shape 500 is acircular object having controls 510. In some implementations, the stepof initiating a node graph application instance may also comprisetransmitting an instruction to one or more prediction modules 350 toinitiate a node graph application instance comprising a parallel copy ofnodes.

At operation 410, selection or movement of a rig control (e.g., rigcontrol 510) is detected. For example, a user may click a rig control inthe viewport, click and drag a rig control in the viewport, type a rigcontrol value, or use some other input method to select and/or change arig control value.

At operation 420, in response to selection or movement of the rigcontrol, the computing device may initiate a request (e.g., through theanimation application instance) for one or more prediction modules 350to spawn a set of pose predictions that represent a plausible posablespace given the current pose. In other words, poses are predicted basedon predicted changes to the rig control or rig controls selected and/ormanipulated by the user.

In one embodiment, prediction modules 350 include a local predictionmanagement module executed by the computing device. In this embodiment,the request initiated by the computing device may include a firstrequest that the local prediction management module predict a set ofposes and a second request that one or more servers (e.g., servers 201,workers “W” in FIG. 3) evaluate poses predicted by prediction managementmodule that have not been cached in cache 300. The local predictionmanagement module may be executed asynchronously along with otheranimation tasks performed by the animation application. It may be a partof the animation application or may be called by the animationapplication. Alternatively, one or more servers may perform both poseprediction and evaluation of the shapes of the predicted poses.

The request initiated by the computing device may comprise metadataabout the current pose, a previous pose, selected/modified rig controls,and other relevant information that permits pose prediction. Forexample, the metadata may identify the current pose (i.e., all of thecurrent rig control values), a rig control that has been selected, arate of change of a rig control, a direction of movement of a rigcontrol, etc.

A prediction module 350 may predict changes to the values of the rigcontrols based on factors such as, for example, user selection, controlproximity, statistical analysis, visibility culling, geometricsegmentation, or some combination thereof. For example, predictions ofthe values of the rig controls may be based on a temporal history ofuser interactions or a directionality of rig control value changes overtime. A prediction module 350 may also evaluate the predicted rigcontrol values (i.e., each predicted pose) to compute a shape for eachpredicted pose. The predicted poses and the computed shapes for thepredicted poses may be stored in a cache 300, which as described above,may be distributed and shared by several computing devices including thecomputing device performing method 400.

In further embodiments, the request may comprise locality metadata thatspecifies on which modules 350 (e.g., local servers, remote servers,devices on the same LAN, etc.) the pose predictions and/or rigevaluations may occur. In some instances, the computing device maylocally perform pose predictions and rig evaluations if local processingbandwidth exceeds a certain threshold.

In embodiments, the request initiated by the computing device may belimited to rig controls that are being modified or are expected to bemodified. For example, for a given node graph corresponding to a rig,the request may be limited to nodes that would need to be reevaluatedbecause of current or anticipated changes to the rig controls. By way ofexample, consider an animator that is manipulating a character rigcomprising about 2000 different controls. The animator may select andmodify a small subset of those controls. For example, the animator maymodify three controls by manipulating a hand of the rig. As the majorityof the rig may not be affected by changes to the hand controls, poseprediction may be limited to changes in these three controls. As anotherexample, consider the case where the artist selects but does not modifya rig control in the hand of the character that affects only two nodesin the node graph. In this case, the distributed computation system maypredict and evaluate changes only to those two nodes in anticipation ofthe user modifying the selected rig control.

At operation 430, following changes to rig control values, the currentpose of the rig is gathered (i.e., the rig control values of the currentpose are gathered). Thereafter, at decision 440 it is determined if thecurrent pose is stored in cache 300, i.e., if there is a cache “hit”.For example, if prediction modules 350 exactly predicted the changes toa rig control (and evaluated the rig and stored the pose data) inresponse to the request to predict poses, then there may be a cache hit.As another example, cache 300 may have been pre-populated (e.g., as partof a previous animation session) with a pose that matches the currentpose of the rig. In such cases, where there is a cache hit,interpolation may be skipped and at operation 480 the shape may be drawnon the user's viewport using the cached information.

If at decision 440, it is determined that there is no cache hit, thenthe shape may be interpolated. At operation 450, a set of poses forshape interpolation may be selected from cache 300. In embodiments, theset of poses may comprise all of the predicted poses calculated andstored in cache 300 by modules 350 or a subset of the predicted poses(e.g., two or more).

In embodiments where a subset of the predicted poses are selected forshape interpolation, the predicted poses may be selected based onfactors such as, for example, a predetermined or user-selected number ofposes used for interpolation, a similarity between the predicted poseand the current pose (e.g., based on some threshold), a similaritybetween the average of two or more predicted poses and the current pose(e.g., based on some threshold), and other factors.

Similarity scores between two poses may be determined based ondifferences between corresponding rig control values between two poses(i.e., the closer the two values, the more similar the two poses). Inone implementation, a similarity score between poses may be determinedby computing a difference for each respective control value of the twoposes and summing the differences (e.g., as a normalized sum). Forexample, all other control values being equal, a pose having a “left-eyeclosed” control value of 20% is more similar to a pose with a left-eyeclosed control value of 25% than a pose with left-eye closed controlvalue of 80%. In another implementation, a similarity score may bedetermined by computing Euclidean distances between correspondingcontrol values of the two poses and assigning greater weights to largerdifferences. In other implementations, greater weights may be assignedto differences between currently selected controls or controls that havea greater influence on the object's shape. For example, while an eyelidcontrol for an animated character object would only influence alocalized part of the character's shape, a hand location control or footlocation control of the animated character may have a much moresignificant influence on the overall shape.

At operation 460, following determination of a set of poses for shapeinterpolation, the computed shapes of those poses are interpolated. Inone embodiment, the shapes are interpolated based on a weighted average.Shapes associated with poses that are more similar to the current posemay be assigned a higher weight than shapes associated with poses thatare less similar to the current pose. For example, the weight for eachshape may be proportional to the similarity of its pose and the currentpose. Accordingly, poses more similar to the current pose may have agreater influence on the final interpolated shape. In one embodiment,the shapes may be interpolated using radial basis functions. Theinterpolated shape may then be drawn in the viewport at operation 470.

By way of example, consider the example of FIG. 5A after the user movesa control 510 of rigged shape 500 to the right. In this example, twosimilar predicted poses are selected: one that predicted the control didnot move as far right as it actually did, and a second that predictedthat the control moved further right than it actually did. In this case,selection of these two shapes for interpolation yields a closeapproximation of the actual shape.

In one embodiment, the interpolated shape is a result that istemporarily displayed in the animation application until the rigcorresponding to the actual pose (i.e., the current pose) is evaluated.The evaluation of the actual rig may take place on the computing deviceor a server (e.g., using modules 350). For example, a module 350 mayevaluate the rig in response to a request initiated at the computingdevice. Once the evaluation completes, the actual shape may be drawn andreplace the temporary interpolated shape. In implementations, evaluationof the actual rig may take place at any time after a control value ismodified and the pose is gathered. For example, evaluation of the rigmay take place as a parallel process to interpolation or afterinterpolation. In one particular implementation, the rig is evaluatedonly after the animator stops moving and/or selecting the rig controls.

In one implementation, no predicted poses may be suitable forinterpolation if the similarity between each predicted pose and thecurrent pose is less than a predetermined or user-preferred threshold,if interpolation between two or more predicted poses will not yield apose similar to the current pose, or for other reasons. In thisimplementation, interpolation may be skipped and the animationapplication instance may instead wait for full evaluation of the shapeof the current pose. The computing device may evaluate the shape or thecomputing device may initiate a request for a server or distributedcomputation system (e.g., modules 350) to evaluate the shape. Forexample, consider the case where the current pose for an animatedcharacter has the character's hand in front of the character's torso,and all of the predicted poses have the character's hand behind thecharacter's torso. In this case, to avoid an inaccurate representationof the animated character, interpolation may be skipped in favor offully evaluating the shape.

In yet another implementation, a predicted pose may be so similar to thecurrent pose that using this single pose provides a better result thaninterpolation with other poses. In this implementation, interpolationmay be skipped and the shape of this pose may be drawn.

It should be noted that process 400 may be iteratively repeated tointerpolate shapes during direct manipulation of shapes. Additionally,prediction of poses and evaluation of the shapes associated with thepredicted poses may occur during various stages of process 400. Forexample, pose prediction and evaluation of the shapes of the predictedposes may occur in response to control selection, before or aftergathering a current pose, and during or after redraw of an interpolatedor actual shape.

FIG. 5B illustrates another example of a viewport displaying a riggedshape (e.g., a rigged character) at different steps of the method ofFIG. 4. In an initial configuration, viewport 570 displays charactershape 550 with rig control 560. As illustrated in this example, rigcontrol 560 can serve as the location, scale, and orientation of thecharacter's left leg. As an animator selects and displaces control 560(e.g., by clicking and dragging the control upward in the viewport),poses are predicted and evaluated for the rigged character. In thisexample, poses may only be predicted for the subset of the rig that isaffected—the character's left leg. For instance, some of the predictedposes may be based on the prediction that the control is modified tomove the character's foot backward whereas other predicted poses may bebased on the prediction that the control is modified to move thecharacter's foot to the side. The evaluated shapes for some or all ofthe predicted poses are interpolated and the shape (e.g., the leg) isdrawn.

FIG. 6 is an operational flow diagram illustrating an example method 600that may be performed by a local or remote server (e.g. predictionmodule 350) of a distributed computation system to predict poses inaccordance with embodiments. At operation 610, the server initiates ananimation application instance comprising a copy of an object (e.g., arigged shape) manipulated on an animation application running on a hostdevice. For example, the server may initiate a node graph applicationinstance comprising a copy of nodes existing on a host application.

At operation 620, the server receives a request from a host device toevaluate predicted poses for the object being manipulated on the hostdevice. In some embodiments, the request may also request that theserver predict poses for the object being manipulated on the hostdevice. The request may comprise metadata about the predicted poses, thecurrent pose, rig controls being selected or modified by the hostdevice, a rate of change of a rig control manipulated on the hostdevice, a direction of a movement of a rig control manipulated on thehost device and other relevant information that permits the server topredict or evaluate poses.

The server may predict changes to the values of the rig controls basedon factors such as, for example, user selection, control proximity,statistical analysis, visibility culling, geometric segmentation, orsome combination thereof. For example, predictions of the values of therig controls may be based on a temporal history of user interactions ora directionality of rig control value changes over time.

At operation 630, the server evaluates the predicted poses to compute ashape for each predicted pose. At operation 640, the predicted poses andshapes are stored in a cache that is made available to the host device.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an animation ghostingworkflow for i) interactive manipulation with a rig and ii) playbackscrubbing of an animated video in accordance with embodiments. FIG. 7will be described in conjunction with FIG. 8A, which illustrates aviewport displaying a rigged shape at different steps of the animationghosting workflow for interaction manipulation.

During animation ghosting, shapes for frames adjacent to the currentframe (e.g., the previous frame, the next frame, or any set of adjacentframes) are drawn next to the shape for the current frame to assist theanimator in visualizing animation of the object over time. The shapesmay be drawn with a different shade or opacity. In the embodimentillustrated by FIGS. 7-8, shapes for a previous frame and next frame aredrawn adjacent to the shape for the current frame.

Prediction modules 750 may comprise a distributed computing system(e.g., the system of FIG. 2) of workers W, each worker evaluating awhole or subset of a rig on a different machine or process. Afterevaluation of a rig to obtain a shape, data of a given predicted poseand associated shape may be stored in cache 700, which, may bedistributed across multiple hosts or otherwise made available tomultiple hosts.

During interactive manipulation, illustrated by the top workflow of FIG.8A, an animator may obtain real time interactive feedback as the artistinteracts with a ghosted animated object (i.e., rigged shape 800) bymodifying rig controls 810 (e.g., by manipulating the object in theviewport or by manually inputting rig values). As the animator selects acontrol to change a value of a rig, prediction modules 350 precompute aset of possible outcomes of the rig for the current frame and adjacentframes, and store the results in cache 300. Once the poses for thecurrent and adjacent frames are gathered, the host device may: i)interpolate a first set of poses most similar to the current pose toobtain an interpolated shape for the current frame; and ii) for each ofthe ghosts, interpolate a second set of poses in frames adjacent to thecurrent pose to obtain interpolated ghost shapes. The host device maythen draw the interpolated shape for the current frame and theinterpolated ghost shapes as illustrated by FIG. 8A. In some cases, thecurrent pose may match one of the predicted poses, interpolation may beskipped, and the shape may be drawn directly from the matching posestored in cache 700.

In embodiments, prediction modules 750 may use information from adjacentframes to improve the efficiency of ghost interpolation. For example,instead of predicting ten possible poses for the current frame, sixposes may predicted for the current frame, two for the previous frame,and two for the next frame. As another example, existing animationcurves may be incorporated to predict how changing a current controlwill influence the value of that control for adjacent frames.

During playback and scrubbing of an animated video, illustrated by thebottom workflow of FIG. 7, prediction modules 750 and cache 700 may beleveraged to cache poses for a given video frame or key frame.

FIG. 8B illustrates another example of a viewport displaying a riggedshape (e.g., a rigged character) at different stages of the animationghosting workflow for interaction manipulation of FIG. 7. In an initialconfiguration, viewport 870 displays character shape 850 with rigcontrol 860 (e.g., a control for the character's left leg). As ananimator selects and displaces control 860, poses are predicted andevaluated for the current frame and adjacent frames. A set of poses mostsimilar to the current frame's pose are interpolated to obtain aninterpolated shape (e.g., character's leg) for the current frame. Foreach of the ghosts, a set of poses are interpolated to obtaininterpolated ghost shapes (e.g., ghost legs). The interpolated leg forthe current frame and the interpolated ghost legs for adjacent framesare drawn.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example computing module that may be used toimplement various features of the methods disclosed herein.

As used herein, the term module might describe a given unit offunctionality that can be performed in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the present application. As used herein, a module mightbe implemented utilizing any form of hardware, software, or acombination thereof. For example, one or more processors, controllers,ASICs, PLAs, PALs, CPLDs, FPGAs, logical components, software routinesor other mechanisms might be implemented to make up a module. Inimplementation, the various modules described herein might beimplemented as discrete modules or the functions and features describedcan be shared in part or in total among one or more modules. In otherwords, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art afterreading this description, the various features and functionalitydescribed herein may be implemented in any given application and can beimplemented in one or more separate or shared modules in variouscombinations and permutations. Even though various features or elementsof functionality may be individually described or claimed as separatemodules, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that thesefeatures and functionality can be shared among one or more commonsoftware and hardware elements, and such description shall not requireor imply that separate hardware or software components are used toimplement such features or functionality.

Where components or modules of the application are implemented in wholeor in part using software, in one embodiment, these software elementscan be implemented to operate with a computing or processing modulecapable of carrying out the functionality described with respectthereto. One such example computing module is shown in FIG. 9. Variousembodiments are described in terms of this example-computing module1000. After reading this description, it will become apparent to aperson skilled in the relevant art how to implement the applicationusing other computing modules or architectures.

Referring now to FIG. 9, computing module 1000 may represent, forexample, computing or processing capabilities found within desktop,laptop, notebook, and tablet computers; hand-held computing devices(tablets, PDA's, smart phones, cell phones, palmtops, etc.); mainframes,supercomputers, workstations or servers; or any other type ofspecial-purpose or general-purpose computing devices as may be desirableor appropriate for a given application or environment. Computing module1000 might also represent computing capabilities embedded within orotherwise available to a given device. For example, a computing modulemight be found in other electronic devices such as, for example, digitalcameras, navigation systems, cellular telephones, portable computingdevices, modems, routers, WAPs, terminals and other electronic devicesthat might include some form of processing capability.

Computing module 1000 might include, for example, one or moreprocessors, controllers, control modules, or other processing devices,such as a processor 1004. Processor 1004 might be implemented using ageneral-purpose or special-purpose processing engine such as, forexample, a microprocessor, controller, or other control logic. In theillustrated example, processor 1004 is connected to a bus 1002, althoughany communication medium can be used to facilitate interaction withother components of computing module 1000 or to communicate externally.

Computing module 1000 might also include one or more memory modules,simply referred to herein as main memory 1008. For example, preferablyrandom access memory (RAM) or other dynamic memory, might be used forstoring information and instructions to be executed by processor 1004.Main memory 1008 might also be used for storing temporary variables orother intermediate information during execution of instructions to beexecuted by processor 1004. Computing module 1000 might likewise includea read only memory (“ROM”) or other static storage device coupled to bus1002 for storing static information and instructions for processor 1004.

The computing module 1000 might also include one or more various formsof information storage mechanism 1010, which might include, for example,a media drive 1012 and a storage unit interface 1020. The media drive1012 might include a drive or other mechanism to support fixed orremovable storage media 1014. For example, a hard disk drive, a solidstate drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, a CD or DVDdrive (R or RW), or other removable or fixed media drive might beprovided. Accordingly, storage media 1014 might include, for example, ahard disk, a solid state drive, magnetic tape, cartridge, optical disk,a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray, or other fixed or removable medium that is readby, written to or accessed by media drive 1012. As these examplesillustrate, the storage media 1014 can include a computer usable storagemedium having stored therein computer software or data.

In alternative embodiments, information storage mechanism 1010 mightinclude other similar instrumentalities for allowing computer programsor other instructions or data to be loaded into computing module 1000.Such instrumentalities might include, for example, a fixed or removablestorage unit 1022 and an interface 1020. Examples of such storage units1022 and interfaces 1020 can include a program cartridge and cartridgeinterface, a removable memory (for example, a flash memory or otherremovable memory module) and memory slot, a PCMCIA slot and card, andother fixed or removable storage units 1022 and interfaces 1020 thatallow software and data to be transferred from the storage unit 1022 tocomputing module 1000.

Computing module 1000 might also include a communications interface1024. Communications interface 1024 might be used to allow software anddata to be transferred between computing module 1000 and externaldevices. Examples of communications interface 1024 might include a modemor softmodem, a network interface (such as an Ethernet, networkinterface card, WiMedia, IEEE 802.XX or other interface), acommunications port (such as for example, a USB port, IR port, RS232port Bluetooth® interface, or other port), or other communicationsinterface. Software and data transferred via communications interface1024 might typically be carried on signals, which can be electronic,electromagnetic (which includes optical) or other signals capable ofbeing exchanged by a given communications interface 1024. These signalsmight be provided to communications interface 1024 via a channel 1028.This channel 1028 might carry signals and might be implemented using awired or wireless communication medium. Some examples of a channel mightinclude a phone line, a cellular link, an RF link, an optical link, anetwork interface, a local or wide area network, and other wired orwireless communications channels.

In this document, the terms “computer readable medium”, “computer usablemedium” and “computer program medium” are used to generally refer tonon-transitory media, volatile or non-volatile, such as, for example,memory 1008, storage unit 1022, and media 1014. These and other variousforms of computer program media or computer usable media may be involvedin carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to aprocessing device for execution. Such instructions embodied on themedium, are generally referred to as “computer program code” or a“computer program product” (which may be grouped in the form of computerprograms or other groupings). When executed, such instructions mightenable the computing module 1000 to perform features or functions of thepresent application as discussed herein.

Although described above in terms of various exemplary embodiments andimplementations, it should be understood that the various features,aspects and functionality described in one or more of the individualembodiments are not limited in their applicability to the particularembodiment with which they are described, but instead can be applied,alone or in various combinations, to one or more of the otherembodiments of the application, whether or not such embodiments aredescribed and whether or not such features are presented as being a partof a described embodiment. Thus, the breadth and scope of the presentapplication should not be limited by any of the above-describedexemplary embodiments.

Terms and phrases used in this document, and variations thereof, unlessotherwise expressly stated, should be construed as open ended as opposedto limiting. As examples of the foregoing: the term “including” shouldbe read as meaning “including, without limitation” or the like; the term“example” is used to provide exemplary instances of the item indiscussion, not an exhaustive or limiting list thereof; the terms “a” or“an” should be read as meaning “at least one,” “one or more” or thelike; and adjectives such as “conventional,” “traditional,” “normal,”“standard,” “known” and terms of similar meaning should not be construedas limiting the item described to a given time period or to an itemavailable as of a given time, but instead should be read to encompassconventional, traditional, normal, or standard technologies that may beavailable or known now or at any time in the future. Likewise, wherethis document refers to technologies that would be apparent or known toone of ordinary skill in the art, such technologies encompass thoseapparent or known to the skilled artisan now or at any time in thefuture.

The presence of broadening words and phrases such as “one or more,” “atleast,” “but not limited to” or other like phrases in some instancesshall not be read to mean that the narrower case is intended or requiredin instances where such broadening phrases may be absent. The use of theterm “module” does not imply that the components or functionalitydescribed or claimed as part of the module are all configured in acommon package. Indeed, any or all of the various components of amodule, whether control logic or other components, can be combined in asingle package or separately maintained and can further be distributedin multiple groupings or packages or across multiple locations.

Additionally, the various embodiments set forth herein are described interms of exemplary block diagrams, flow charts and other illustrations.As will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art afterreading this document, the illustrated embodiments and their variousalternatives can be implemented without confinement to the illustratedexamples. For example, block diagrams and their accompanying descriptionshould not be construed as mandating a particular architecture orconfiguration.

While various embodiments of the present disclosure have been describedabove, it should be understood that they have been presented by way ofexample only, and not of limitation. Likewise, the various diagrams maydepict an example architectural or other configuration for thedisclosure, which is done to aid in understanding the features andfunctionality that can be included in the disclosure. The disclosure isnot restricted to the illustrated example architectures orconfigurations, but the desired features can be implemented using avariety of alternative architectures and configurations. Indeed, it willbe apparent to one of skill in the art how alternative functional,logical or physical partitioning and configurations can be implementedto implement the desired features of the present disclosure. Also, amultitude of different constituent module names other than thosedepicted herein can be applied to the various partitions. Additionally,with regard to flow diagrams, operational descriptions and methodclaims, the order in which the steps are presented herein shall notmandate that various embodiments be implemented to perform the recitedfunctionality in the same order unless the context dictates otherwise.

Although the disclosure is described above in terms of various exemplaryembodiments and implementations, it should be understood that thevarious features, aspects and functionality described in one or more ofthe individual embodiments are not limited in their applicability to theparticular embodiment with which they are described, but instead can beapplied, alone or in various combinations, to one or more of the otherembodiments of the disclosure, whether or not such embodiments aredescribed and whether or not such features are presented as being a partof a described embodiment. Thus, the breadth and scope of the presentdisclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplaryembodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: initiating a node graphapplication instance at a computing device, the node graph applicationinstance displaying an object comprising a rig and a shape, wherein theobject comprises an initial pose; receiving data generated by a userselecting or modifying a control of the rig; in response to receivingthe data, initiating a request at the computing device for a predictionmodule to spawn a set of predictions for poses of the object, whereinthe prediction module computes a plurality of predicted poses for theobject based on the initial pose and the selected or modified control ofthe rig; and interpolating two or more of the plurality of predictedposes to obtain an interpolated shape.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: drawing the interpolated shape in a viewport of the nodegraph application.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the interpolatedshape is a result that is temporarily displayed in the viewport until arig corresponding to a current pose of the object is evaluated.
 4. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the predicted poses are stored in a cache,wherein the computing device is communicatively coupled to the cache,and wherein interpolating two or more of the plurality of predictedposes comprises: selecting a set of predicted poses stored in the cachefor interpolation.
 5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:gathering a pose of the object in response to receiving data generatedby the user modifying a control of the rig; and determining if one ofthe plurality of predicted poses stored in the cache is the same as thecurrent pose.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein initiating a request atthe computing device for a prediction module to spawn a set ofpredictions for poses of the object, comprises: the computing devicecomputing a plurality of predicted poses for the object based on atleast one of user selection, control proximity, statistical analysis,visibility culling, or geometric segmentation; and the computing devicerequesting that one or more servers evaluate each of the plurality ofpredicted poses.
 7. The method of claim 2, wherein the request initiatedby the computing device comprises metadata of the selected or modifiedrig control.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the metadata comprises atleast one of a rate of change of the rig control or a direction ofmovement of the rig control.
 9. The method of claim 2, wherein theprediction module comprises a server system communicatively coupled tothe computing device over a network.
 10. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: interpolating a second set of poses from the predicted posesto obtain a second interpolated shape; and drawing the secondinterpolated shape in a viewport of the node graph application as aghost shape of the first interpolated shape.
 11. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, whenexecuted by one or more processors, causes a system to: initiate a nodegraph application instance, the node graph application instancedisplaying an object comprising a rig and a shape, wherein the objectcomprises an initial pose; receive data generated by a user selecting ormodifying a control of the rig; in response to receiving the data,initiate a request for a prediction module to spawn a set of predictionsfor poses of the object, wherein the prediction module computes aplurality of predicted poses for the object based on the initial poseand the selected or modified control of the rig; and interpolate two ormore of the plurality of predicted poses to obtain an interpolatedshape.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11,wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors,are further configured to cause the system to draw the interpolatedshape in a viewport of the node graph application.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein theinterpolated shape is a result that is temporarily displayed in theviewport until a rig corresponding to a current pose of the object isevaluated.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12,wherein the predicted poses are stored in a cache, wherein the system iscommunicatively coupled to the cache, and wherein interpolating two ormore of the plurality of predicted poses comprises: selecting a set ofpredicted poses stored in the cache for interpolation.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the one or more processors, are furtherconfigured to cause the system to: gather a pose of the object inresponse to receiving data generated by the user modifying a control ofthe rig; and determine if one of the plurality of predicted poses storedin the cache is the same as the current pose.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein initiating a request atthe computing device for a prediction module to spawn a set ofpredictions for poses of the object, comprises: the system computing aplurality of predicted poses for the object based on at least one ofuser selection, control proximity, statistical analysis, visibilityculling, or geometric segmentation; and the system requesting that oneor more servers evaluate each of the plurality of predicted poses. 17.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein therequest comprises metadata of the selected or modified rig control. 18.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein themetadata comprises at least one of a rate of change of the rig controlor a direction of movement of the rig control.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, are further configured to causethe system to: interpolate a second set of poses from the predictedposes to obtain a second interpolated shape; and draw the secondinterpolated shape in a viewport of the node graph application as aghost shape of the first interpolated shape.
 20. A method, comprising:initiating a node graph application instance at a server, the node graphapplication instance comprising a copy of an object manipulated on anode graph application instance of a host device; receiving a requestfrom the host device to evaluate a set of predicted poses for theobject, wherein the request comprises rig control values for each of theplurality of predicted poses; in response to receiving the request,evaluating the rig control values for each of the plurality of predictedposes to obtain a shape for each of the plurality of predicted poses;and storing in a cache the shape for each of the plurality of predictedposes, wherein the host device may access the cache to retrieve theshapes.